TV Ratings and Bowl Games Highlight America's Passion for College Football in 2007

Courtesy of The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame

DALLAS - The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) highlighted today that 2007 season, a year filled with thrilling upsets and record-setting performances, produced top-notch television ratings and concluded with another bowl season enjoyed by millions of fans across the country.

"The numbers show that the interest in college football continues to grow and that the sport is truly America's passion," said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. "We applaud the bowl games and the broadcasting industry for their efforts and creativity in promoting the great game of college football and making it accessible to millions of viewers and fans during the season. It was a really impressive year, a year of unprecedented upsets and an exciting one to watch."

The 2007-08 bowl season, with 64 teams participating in a slate of 32 bowl games, established new high water marks in viewership and fan attendance, building on a season that saw ESPN on ABC Sports, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, CSTV, Versus, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, Fox Sports Net, the Big Ten Network, and the NFL Network all capitalize on college football's ever increasing popularity. The commitment of every major network and many of the premier cable channels continues to take the sport of college football to new heights in terms of support and interest.

With more than 1.7 million combined fans attending a bowl game and close to another combined 129 million households tuning in to watch the bowl games on television, bowl payouts ran an estimated $225 million in 2007-08 and have totaled $1.6 billion over the last nine seasons. Over the next ten years, bowls are projected to pay $2.4 billion to the teams and conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision who participate.

Regular Season Ratings:

Highlighted by its relationship with the SEC, CBS posted an average national household rating/share for the season of 3.5/8, up 13% from a 3.1/7 last year. The 2007 season marked CBS' best year since a 3.7/10 rating/share in 1999. ESPN also posted impressive viewership with its third most-viewed season ever, averaging 2,013,687 households per game, and ESPN2 recorded its most-viewed season ever with 1,027,368 households per game. ESPN on ABC averaged 4,364,148 households per game with two games landing in the top 10 audiences ever: the Nov. 24 Missouri-Kansas game with 10,960,755 viewers (ranking 7th all-time) and the Dec. 1 Oklahoma- Missouri game with 10,841,849 (ranking 9th all-time). The Versus network saw a 50 percent increase in national household rankings and a 92 percent increase in total viewership.

Bowl Attendance and Ticket Sales:

Final attendance for all bowls in '07-08 was 1,733,499 for a game average of 54,172. Of the 64 teams competing, 28 sold out their allotment of tickets, 11 bowls sported record attendance figures, eight postseason games drew 65,000-plus fans, and eight bowls were proclaimed sellouts within 24 hours of their matchup announcements.

The Allstate BCS National Championship Game produced the largest crowd (79,651) ever in Louisiana Superdome history with the venue playing host to three bowl tussles (for the first time in city history) from Dec. 21, 2007-Jan. 7, 2008. Allstate Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan and his staff pulled off the staging of two of those games with aplomb and panache, winning universal praise from the fans and the media alike while the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation hosted the The R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl, posting high water marks as most-viewed New Orleans Bowl dating back to 2001. The Allstate BCS National Championship Game also became the top- selling event in StubHub's history, surpassing last year's Super Bowl and the Tostitos BCS National Championship game.

The Capital One Bowl in Orlando drew 69,748 fans, selling out within 13 hours. Organizers had to add 4,000 extra bleacher seats to accommodate the overflow crowds. En route to producing its quickest sellout ever, The Valero Alamo Bowl attracted its largest crowd in history with 66,166 fans in attendance.

The Tostitos Fiesta Bowl continued its record of 23 sellouts in the last 24 games while the FedEx Orange Bowl sold out for the eighth consecutive year. The Chick-fil-A Bowl sold out for the 11th straight year in less than 48 hours, and The Cotton Bowl was sold out in less than 24 hours. The Poinsettia Bowl had the largest crowd in game history with 39,129, an increase of 24% over last year's game while the Holiday Bowl had its third largest crowd in history, while recording its fifth straight sell out.

The '07 Houston Bowl recorded an event-record of 62,907 tickets sold at Reliant Stadium. It was the third- largest crown to watch a college contest in the city of Houston. The Armed Forces Bell Helicopter Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas, smashed its previous turnout highs with 40,905 in attendance. Alabama and Colorado had the most tickets sold (47,043) for the PetroSun Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., since Arkansas-Missouri attracted 49,625 in 2003.

Bowl Community Impact:

An estimated $1.3 billion poured into the community coffers from travel and tourism in the 32 clashes, and coaches and student-athletes took time out from their practice schedules to participate in a wide range of unique community service events that included visits to pediatric wards, children's hospitals, veterans hospitals, Boys & Girls Clubs, the Ronald McDonald House, Make-A Wish participants, fan fests with disadvantaged kids, and food distribution centers for the less fortunate.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl distributed $1.04 million in charitable and scholarship contributions, which doubled last year's record total of $531,000. The game also generates an estimated $30-35 million in economic impact for metro Atlanta each year, eclipsing the NBA All-Star Game, NCAA Women's Final Four and the SEC Football Championship game. At the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, current members of the armed forces were admitted free and veterans gained entry at a 50 percent discount, Fort Worth, Texas. 3,500 troops also enjoyed a free feast of burritos, rice, beans and hot sauce provided by the Fort Worth-based Rosa's Café & Tortilla Factory.

Bowl Ratings Highlights:

2007-08 produced another banner year for bowl game viewing. Especially noteworthy, all of the pre- Christmas Bowl game ratings increased this year, and all the games continued to produce strong interest from the powerful demographic of 18-49 year- old males. For the bowl season, ESPN delivered an average of 2,866,410 households while ESPN2 delivered its most-viewed bowl season ever with 1,502,134 households and 1,950,490 viewers, posting an 11 percent increase with males 18-49 and a 17 percent increase with males 25-54. The Allstate BCS National Championship Game came in second overall in the Neilsen ratings, posting at the No. 2 most watch program among 18-49 year olds and the No. 3 most watch program among males teens between 12-17 year olds. Other highlights include:

ESPN on ABC Bowl Rating Highlights:

The Rose Bowl and Capital One Bowl averaged 11.4 million households, up 2% from last year.

The Capital One Bowl recorded 9.1 household rating, making it the highest-rated Capital One Bowl in a since the 1998 Florida-Penn State game, which drew 9.2 million households.

ESPN Bowl Rating Highlights:

The Chick-fil-A Bowl between Auburn and Clemson captured 4.9 million households, the second most- viewed bowl game on ESPN since 1990 behind only the 2006 Alamo Bowl, which attracted 5.5 million households.

The Pacific Life Holiday Bowl drew 4.2 million households, a 7% increase over 2006 and the 2nd most watched bowl game on ESPN in 2007.

The Music City Bowl attracted 3.9 million households, becoming the highest-rated and most viewed dating back to 1998.

The Motor City Bowl engaged 2.6 million households, the most-viewed since 2001.

The Las Vegas Bowl captured 2.4 million households, the highest rated since 2002.

The Champs Sports Bowl won 3.6 million households, its highest rated and most viewed ever.

The San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl also doubled its ratings from a year ago with a 2.00 adjusted Nielsen number.

The Papajohns.com Bowl drew 2.2 million households, the most-viewed bowl game on ESPN2 this season and the second highest-rated bowl game on ESPN2, behind only the 2002 GMAC Bowl, which attracted 2.3 million households.
The R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl attracted 1.6 million households, becoming the highest-rated and most-viewed New Orleans Bowl dating back to 2001.
FOX Bowl Rating Highlights:

Drawing 23.1 million viewers and with a total of 52 million Americans tuning in to see at least part of the game, The Allstate BCS National Championship Game delivered FOX the second highest-rated and most-watched night of television of the season-to-date, only behind an NFL Wildcard game on NBC.
All four 2008 BCS on FOX pre- games/games won their nightly ratings among the powerful 18-49 demographic. It was the first time that the Bowl Championship Series has delivered a network four nightly "highs" in the key prime time demographic.

The 14.4/22 rating for the Allstate BCS Championship Game topped the season-to-date household average of every show in prime time. The current top-ranked show (through Jan. 14, 2008) for the season-to-date is Dancing with the Stars (14.0/20). The game beat all season-to-date prime time shows among all adults 18-49 as well. The 8.2 number among adults 18-49 topped ABC's Desperate Housewives (7.3), which is currently prime time's No. 1 show.

What is needed is a hybrid. We can keep the bowls and tradition and simply add a couple additional playoff games for the top eight or so teams. God knows there's enough time with the month-plus break between the regular and bowl seasons.